About Sunny Hills, Florida
Sunny Hills was platted by The Deltona
Corporation in 1971 and 1972 with 24,301 lots on 17,743
acres in southeastern Washington County in an area
locally known as “the sand hills”.
As the final and 7th community
platted in Florida by The Deltona Corporation, it was
projected to grow into a community with about 60,000
population, and the master plan contains land uses for
golf courses, schools, churches, conservation areas,
roads, public services sites for utilities, and so
forth. In a very few years, over 13,000 lots had been
sold and paved roads were completed in the Phase I or
western side of the community, but few people actually
built homes as the marketing program was aimed at the
Depression and World War II generation for retirement
homes in the future. Until about 2007, Deltona also
built homes, but does not currently provide construction
services.
The Deltona Corporation experienced
financial problems over a period of years in the 1980’s
and 1990’s and the eastern side of the community was
never completed with roads, drainage, and other
utilities.
Currently there are 619 homes within
Sunny Hills and an estimated population of 1,200 people,
or about 5% of the county population. Because of the
platting, Sunny Hills contains over 50% of the taxable
parcels in the county and over 40% of the just value.
Actual ad valorem taxes paid represent over 30% of the
total county ad valorem revenue due to the large number
of vacant lots. Each new home built represents about
twice the ad valorem revenue as compared to dwellings
built outside Sunny Hills.
Washington County is growing, but
primarily in the southern half, due to the economic
drivers and new jobs being created in Bay County
immediately to the south on the Gulf of Mexico with the
new international airport, a 4,000 acre industrial park
around the new airport, new foreign trade zones,
improvements and expanded services at the Port of Panama
City, and evolving of the Panama City area as a
transportation hub with intermodal transfer points for
road, rail, sea and air transport serving both domestic
and international trade. Land cost is high in Bay
County due to the resort areas along the Gulf, and
limitations on land use due to wetlands and significant
land holdings by timber companies, so a convenient place
to live is southern Washington County. Sunny Hills is
the largest platted area in the region where buildable
lots are readily available at competitive prices.
Current Activity
The Deltona Corporation (850-773-2823)
continues to sell lots (residential & commercial) and
hosts groups of potential buyers on weekend trips to
Sunny Hills from northern states. Spring Ridge
Development, LLC purchased about 6,000
lots from Deltona in 2006 and has created a new concept
on the eastside of Sunny Hills with a new amenities
package and beach privileges at a major condominium
resort on Panama City Beach. Currently, Spring
Ridge has suspended lot sales due to regional economic
conditions. Private builders in the area continue to
hold lot inventory waiting for the economic upturn, but
some currently offer a lot and home package through lot
signs and local advertising.
Lot Sales.
Lots in Sunny
Hills are available from The Deltona Corporation. Other
developers holding lots as inventory include local
builders, and private owners. There are signs on lots
throughout the community, but with about 28 square miles
and 160 miles of paved roads, just driving around can be
time consuming.
Another source for lots in Sunny Hills is the private
resale market through local Realtors or by owners
directly. There are lots in Sunny Hills listed both on
the Bay County Association of Realtors MLS (www.panamacityrealtors.com)
and the Chipola Area Board of Realtors (www.TheRealFlorida.com).
Generally, prices on resale lots are below prices by the
developers and builders as they are not offered with
owner financing, and often are discounted to stimulate a
quicker sale for personal reasons, but these lots are
scattered throughout the community and require more
research on the part of buyers.
Deltona’s website is
www.deltona.com.
Municipal Services Benefit Unit (MSBU)
The MSBU was formed by County Ordinance
2001-4 on September 5, 2001, to provide funds for
supplemental services within the approximately 28 square
mile Benefit Unit (Sunny Hills and Oak Hill
Subdivisions). Historically, Washington County has been
a poor rural county so the Board of County Commissioners
(BOCC) had more requirements than funds, and since Sunny
Hills represented few votes its basic needs were ignored
by the BOCC for years. The original survey of property
owners indicated the assessment funds should be invested
in expanded fire and emergency services, street lights,
paved road maintenance and right-of-way/drainage
repairs, general beautification on main roads and parks,
and mowing the rights-of-way 4 to 5 times per year
rather than twice as provided by the county.
The initial assessment was set at $25.00
per year per buildable residential or commercial lot,
and buildable was defined as having paved road access.
That definition provided for a mechanism to add assessed
lots as the developer paved more roads, and at the time
the MSBU was created a total of about 160 miles of the
220 miles of roads in Sunny Hills were paved. The
ordinance also provided that the assessment could be
increased at not more than 5% per year, which has
occurred and the assessment for 2009 was $30.39/lot.
With approximately 15,000 assessed parcels, the MSBU
raises about $456,000, and that amount will continue to
rise as the developers within Sunny Hills
pave its roads, which will add about $182,000 at the
current assessment rate when Spring Ridge is completed.
In the original ordinance and the revised
ordinance passed February 22, 2007, both provided for a
“MSBU Advisory Committee” composed of property owners
and residents in the Benefit Unit. The BOCC
functionally disbanded that process in July, 2007, by
firing the MSBU Coordinator and appointing a succession
of county employees to that role. Conditions in the
community have deteriorated based upon actual
maintenance performed over the last 2+ years.
There is a lawsuit filed against the BOCC
challenging the stewardship of the BOCC throughout the
existence of the MSBU, since accounting records are
minimal and funds from non-assessment sources were
comingled with the MSBU assessment funds, so it may be
impossible to tell exactly which funds were used for
what purpose. Additionally, the suit challenges the
BOCC’s use of MSBU assessment funded equipment outside
the Benefit Unit for the benefit of county-wide purposes
and to the detriment of the assessment payers within the
Benefit Unit.
The Civic Association has established a
policy of not commenting on the lawsuit since the
purpose of the Association is to be non-political and
non-partisan in trying to advance the interests of Sunny
Hills property owners.
If you wish to track progress of the law
suit, go to
www.SunnyHillsFire.com.
